Automatic accounting device



Oct. 23, 195] E. w. FLINT ET AL AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE 13 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 24, 1949 E W FLINT INVENTORS A E JOEL'JR ATTORNEY 13 SheetsSheet 3 E. W. FLINT ET AL AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Filed June 24, 1949 Oct. 23, 1951 15 Sheets-Sheet 5 E. W. FLINT El AL Oct. 23, 1951 AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Filed June 24, 1949 T l 1% v3 NE FF} o Oct. 23, 1951 E. w. FLINT ET AL 2,572,804

AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Filed June 24, 1949 13 Sheets-Sheet 7 I. E FI I r515 I 0/50. on [gs/5T5? 1 O srnnr TIME LINE REGISTER CON/VECTOR IE 'EEQl-H FITTTI" llll LL TYPE TRANSLATOI LL'lSE REG I I II I I I I IE I I STHADOLE OUTPUT REG E! FLINT 'NVENTORS. AE. JOEL, JR.

ATTORNEY FIG .9

1951 E. w. FLINT ET AL 2,572,804

AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Filed June 24, 1949 13 Sheets-Sheet 8 fIl-IIIHI- g a" 5 i i E mans:

E! FLINT QLf 4.5. 105. JR

ATTORNEY FIG: [0

Oct. 23, 1951 E. w. FLINT ET AL AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE 13 Sheets-Sheet 10 WVE/VTORS III IIIII d 2.0 l 3% l I W\ QM m I I I I I I 1 F ATTORNEY 13 Sheets-Sheet ll INVENTORS FLINT .E. JOEL, JR. 3)

ATTORNEY Dct. 23, 1951 E. w. FLINT ET AL AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Filed June 24, 1949 13 Sheets-Sheet 12 E. W. FLINT ET AL AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE A TTORNE Y Oct. 23, 1951 Filed June 24, 1949 E. W. FLINT ET AL AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Oct. 23, 1951 13 Sheets-Sheet 13 Filed June 24, 1949 8Q mam E. w FL/NT g? A. E. JOEL, JR.

A T TOR/V5 V Fatented Oct. 23, 1951 2,572,804 AUTOMATIC ACCOUNTING DEVICE Erlon W. Flint,-Mountain View, N. J., and Amos E. Joel, Jr., New York, N. Y., assignors to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 24, 1949, Serial No. 101,085

Claims. (01. 235-6137) This invention relates to; automatic accounting systems and particularly to systems wherein records automatically produced by and of customer uses of given facilities over variable time periods are processed by electrical devices in a number of steps to produce customer bills for the services rendered.

The object of the invention is to provide means for collecting the data from various and scattered sources in the records, to calculate the charges to be made and to translate the records into the form required for printing.

The present invention resides in a plurality of circuit details of one of the electrical devices employed for one step in the automatic accounting process, that device known as the computer. This device, like the other devices employed, is arranged to take records from an incoming or old perforated tape, to modify the records in accordance with the purposes for which it is adapted and to produce a plurality of outgoing or new perforated tapes therefrom.

The original tape, automatically produced by customer use of givenfacilities contains scattered items of specific information, such as the initial entry, the answer or start time and the disconnect or termination time for each customer use and other items of general information, such as the general location of the using customers facilities, the date, the hours and the identity of the billing period. This tape in a specific arrangement of an accounting system is employed as an incoming tape in a device known as an assembler, which collects or assembles the various and scattered items of specific information.

The next step in the accounting process is performed in the computer which takes the assembled items of specific information, calculates therefrom elapsed time, modifies the result in accordance with a billing index which indicates the rate of charges, translates this result into a number of unit charges (message units in an automatic message accounting system) and distributes the calculated charges along with accompanying details tapes. There will be ten of such perforators assigned to the recording of message unit charges. If the tape is from a marker group serving more than one ofiice, then as many of these perforators as there are oifices will be used so that a separate outgoing tape for each office will be prepared. If the marker group contains but a single office then the charges will be sorted on a decimal basis either in accordance with the thousands digit of the calling line number or in accordance with the units digit thereof. There will be six of such perforators assigned to the recording of detail calls, that is calls, the details of which will be reported on the customers bills. Since the central ofiice tapes are recorded by rounds and since the longest round provided for will consist of six days, then six perforators are provided so that the detail calls may be sorted by days. There will be one perforator assigned to the recording of irregular calls such as straddle calls or those occasional calls which exceed the capacity of the device such as those extending over a period of time greater than ninety-nine minutes. There Will be one perforator assigned to the recording of the details of message unit calls where these details are sought for monitoring or other purposes by the customer. The customers billwill nevertheless be rendered on the message unit basis so that a particular message unit call will be processed by the computer and two records produced therefrom, one in short form on one of the regular message unit tapes for billing purposes and another in longer form on the message unit detail .there will be one perforator assigned to record the line observed calls, that is, a record made of all calls originated on certain lines put under observation under routine or on account of customer complaints.

The first seventeen output tapes including the ten message unit tapes, the six detail call tapes and the irregular call tape will contain billing information whereas the last two, the message unit detail call and the line observed call tapes will .contain reference information. The distribution of calls to these nineteen outgoing channels is a function of the computer and in most cases is controlled by some' index in the initial entry of each call, but may in other cases be controlled by extraordinary conditions derived or detected by the computer itself, as when the elapsed time calculated exceeds two digits (99 minutes). Thus, the computer translates, calculates, computes, sorts and otherwise rearranges the items of ini formation found on an incoming tape to form a plurality of outgoing tapes carrying the thus processed information in another form.

By way of illustration, a number of examples-of assembled call information as they appear on the incoming tape and as they are transformed for perforation on one or another of the outgoing tapes are given with a short explanation of certain features of the transformation.

(1.) A message unit call entered as:

which is a call made from omc tfl, of. the given marker group (identified in the tape identity entries) from calling line:.5444,;:and extending .7

irom 31.7 minutes to 35.2':minutes. "i'fllhe billing index (3), we will assume will cause thecalculation of 3.5 minutes of elapsed time-=to"indicate"-- 2 message units, so that the computer willsform and cause to be perforated on the number perforator (thousands digit of calling line num ber, assuming a single .ofiice in the given marker =;-'g-roup)i the following=output'line:

.(2) .;A-message unit call entereclas =13) .1Amessageiunit.callhentereltas:

1105111116 .very; similar toExample No." Lexceptthat sit ralso includes; ant-hour entry. The: elapsed 3 :time: is calculated asfollows:

Ifthis 'in=combina'tion with the :billing' index indicates-'3 message unit calls then :the output #will be:

2' ,(4) A rmessage. :unit sall might; appear: as:

,JIhe secondrline: ini ithis casezis-rknown; as an .-..-i1regular :hour: entryrandawhile :it do,es;not-.:show the actual lhoursit'. nevertheless-sets :thewhour cirs-cuit :backan hour-so. that thecalculationdsiden- 4. tical with Example No. 3 and the output line will be:

5 (5) Should a call appear as follows:

then'the calculation of elapsed time would be as :;;follows:

Assuming that this elapsed time will indicate 27 rzvmessageunits the output becomes:

0o l o 027 (6) If the line 5444r of Example No. l were 1 under observatiom then the input to the computer would be as follows:

The'entry index ithe-B digit-0f the first line of the initial entry) is--4-in'stead oil as in the first example; and two supplementary lines giving'details of the' called-number"are added. 'Inthis *case the computer iormsand causes to i be perforated on the number 5 perforator, as before; the

output line:

isxisupiervisory information. and not used -:in storming? bills but goes to company oifi'cials for "various purposes such :as xroutine checking. nor: :for: answering complaints, etc. The r second Ilineds formed byla translator from an assumed .;date:...(1'5.th) ,:..houri(2l) :and answer time (31). 'Theuthird and :four'th lines :are :copies of the last two .linesof ithe; assembled call .and 'the last "line has. .azrecordwofzthe message unit index (0) ,Lthe -chargeable time (M-arouncled' ofi from 3.5) and rthe:number ofimessagelunits, charged (02) .(-.'7) in Example Noifiif .theithird linehadbeen 123:304fi-instead' of 243046*then.a;message unit deztailwcallrisi:indicated. ji'Irrzsuchs-rcase thewoutput .line Wi11"b6j1'254442 as; beforezand. the five-line de- :tail information :necordwvilli be; exactly the-same raexeept that itwillslae perforatedonithe MUD tape :einstead-pf the L0 tapezand willteventually I go'zto 75. the customeriorhiszinformation.

' (8) A detail call read from the incoming tape will be processed and distributed to the detail call output tape as:

The first line of this output gives the calling line number. The second line is the start time line which is synthesized from the day (15), the hour (21) and minutes (31). The third and fourth lines are copies of the last two lines of the call as entered and the last line shows the chargeable time as 04 minutes. Note the difference between this and Example No. 6 where the number of message units (02) appeared as the last two digits of the last line. In the present case the message billing index (9) in the third line 239013 of the entries read from the incoming tape is a means which causes the last two digits of the last line of the processed call perforated on the detail call tape to be blanked out as 00.

(9) With a very slight difference, the digit 4 instead of the digit 3 as the B (or second) digit of the first line of the initial entry as:

the following record:

will be perforated in both the line observing output tape and the detail call tape.

There are many variations of the above described patterns to take care of many operating contingencies and which need not be described in detail. One of the important circuits of the computer but which in fact gets less use than others is the so-called straddle circuit for taking care of a variety of irregular calls and which are mainly recorded so that an operator orclerk may investigate the irregular circumstances and prepare a bill by hand.

In general, the computer consists of a plurality of registers into which both items of specific information and items of general information may be entered, a calculator, steering means, line forming pattern means and distributing means. Specific details of a call are entered, the elapsed time is calculated and this is weighted, rounded off and converted into charges, either chargeable time or a number of message units.

Again, generally the first items of information entered in the computer are the recorder number, the hour and the day and these are registered before any specific problem is presented for calculation and remain registered until a complete group (for a single call identity index) of calls 65 hasbeen processed. During the processing of thisgroup the hour and the day registrations are changed from time to time by the occurrence of an hour entry found among the scattered items of specific information.

The first of the specific items of information to be registered are the two items fixing the start and end of the customer use of the facilities and from these the calculator derives the elapsed time and transmits this to an elapsed time register where it is held under control of an output control circuit. Generally the elapsed time may be calculated and registered before the initial entry giving other details of the customer use can be completely registered and the output lines formed and transmitted. To save time, an overlapping arrangement is employed, whereby after a calculation has been made and the elapsed time has been transferred to the elapsed time register but before the computer has transmitted the patterned lines to an output tape, the time element lines of the next call are entered in the calculator.

After the complete information has been registered in the computer the output control will cause the selection of a particular output channel and will transmit thereto the patterned lines such as those explained hereinabove.

A feature of the invention is a means for delaying the registration of entry lines while awaiting the perforating or other disposition of information already registered to insure a full reading cycle when finally allowing registration. As above noted the computer is controlled by a train of pulses supplied by a cam arrangement on the reader which is operated by a constant speed motor. Specifically, a circuit is recurrently closed for about forty milliseconds and opened, for about twenty milliseconds so that there are: about sixteen cycles per second. The reading of a code starts at the beginning of a forty-millisecond closure of this circuit and must be satis-- factorily completed within a given period there-- after so that a check for validity may be made: and reported within another limited period; thereafter to allow time before the ending of this:v forty-millisecond period for some other given operation, such, for instance, as the transfer of the: code just read to a register. Means must be pro-- vided for holding the circuits from the reading; relays open for various reasons and hence means: are now provided so that if such circuits from the reading relays are not properly closed before the beginning of a cycle (a forty-millisecond closure followed by a twenty-millisecond opening of a circuit) then such circuits are maintained open during the entire forty-millisecond period. Thus, an operation is not allowed to start at some indefinite time after the beginning of a cycle so that a full period for a proper operation is insured.

A feature of the invention may, therefore, be stated as a gate means which may be locked in closed position and maintained in such position if it has not been opened prior to the attempted passage of a signal therethrough.

In a specific embodiment of the invention, the reader is provided with contacts by which a precisely timed train of impulses corresponding in time and duration to the reading intervals thereof and a circuit from these contacts is extended through the validity circuit of the reading relays and forms the basic circuit for operating the register connector relays whereby transmission paths between the reading relays and the various registers are established. Each registeg:-is.-=prorided withxa down-.checlmcircnit; whereby. .thercondition of 'the. register; whether occupied-i or. :com-pletely:v :released. and; ready f 1158118 continuously reported.- A register: con-z nector relay may only be operated when itsdown-a check;- relay. reportss'the' said, register ctoxbele- 1eased::and;.ready.fori use; In accordance. with; the. present. invention,v gaterrelayszare provided: and 263.011 has. a locking circuit.bontrolledbyth: down =check..re1ayrot: thetregister which' the: gates relay controls. so that. the...gate...- cannottbe openeduntil the down-.checkzirelay reports the register :tobe :in :conditionfor 1156.: The gaterrelay alsoihaaanothen locking control .-provided. by. a. connectiomtothe. said: validity-circuit 'so-..th'a-t if it.:;:shou1d (happen. .that. .the.-. down+check relays should report a register now .:ready for use, the? gate: cannot=.:be. opened during .a reading: inter vahbut must perforce be maintained. closed untilthezend. ofrthe reading interval. By this means. itrisinsuredthatwhen a gateis opened, the.reg-. isters now available :for .use shall have:aful1-read.-. ing interval-in whichitmay be operated;

Th drawingsconsists ofrthirteen sheets having sixteen figures as follows:

' Fig.3 aperspective viewof theracksand cabinets in Whichthe device .of' the presentzinvention is. housed and isintendedto give-ageneral view of thedevice; v

Figs 2* :is .ahighly schematic-showing .of: the basic switching circuit employed herein;

. .F'i'gnB: isia block diagram'showing'how Figs. 4' to 13, inclusivemaybe placedito form a more-detailedibut. yet a schematic-like use of th elements ofnthe. present invention and. in which:

Fig.4 showstheread-er and the readingrelays byiwhich-the inputtape is scanned;

Fig;.r5:.indicates. the-location: in the circuit ar rangement of the reader linevcount means the readingrelaytranslator and the control circuits Fig; -6' shows a. numberof registerconnectors and:.indicates thgdisconnect time-register;

Fig. *rlikewiseshows a number of register connectors and indicates: the answer time and the recorderregister;

' Fig; S shows: thecalling number-.registenth'e area. andcalled office register, the called num her register, the billing index regist r and 1 the day and junctor register and decimal translator Fig.9 shows'the call type translator, the day register; the timereleaseregister, the day reg-- ister-translator, the-straddle output register, thestart'time-line-register,the earlier hour register; the-hour transfer check connector; the disconnectregister the-disconnectday register; the starttime line register-connector and the time pattern register i Fig; 10 shows theadder that part-ofthe'computer which-performs the-"mathematical functions thereof;

, Figzg'l-l' shows theoutput class register, the sort class connector, the entry spread: progress oncuit,- the ofiice assignment patternconnector; the

set-upswitches and. the. line. pattern connector forthe end of tape perforation;

Fig-12 shows the chargeable time register, the chargeable time translator, the message, units re ister, the message, units formula device, the messageunits formula connector andv the. line pattern connectorfor call entries;and

, Fig. .13.,shows.the elapsed time translator, the sortcontrol, .the. ,perforator register, the perforatorv control,,. part. of (the line. pattern.,con.-.- nectorior call. entries, the check circuit. therefor and-1 indicatesi two :of ia plurality .iof. perforator connectors and the associated perforators;

Fig. 14 is a block diagram showing how Figs. 15 and 16 may be placedtoiorm a complete schematic diagram illustrating the characteristic feature of the present invention;

Fig. 15 shows in schematic form the reader, the reader connector andthe reading relays; and Fig.,.16. shows,v in.-.schematic.form the various. connector relays for extending connections. bee tween the reading relays. and the Various registers into which information is to be disposed together with the control relays forming the gate means of the present invention.

In the following description the various relays are designated by both letters and numerals whichvhave come tcr. have certain"significance to persons; familiarfwith" the 'technical-detailszof; thedisclosed arrangements. By Way-oft example,-.the-

- reading arelays are-z knowrr as the At; Al and A2 relays forthefirstzgroup thereof used to register. the-A;digit ofirthe six-digit line used in: the automatic.accountingcsystem tapes. In the present case therearexthree relays inwthe first-.or A set; and: five-relays'suchas-the B0, B1, B2, Bliand: Blwrelays in each .ofgthe remaining five sets. a great. many cases a; relay: will have only such. an :alphabetici designation but in other cases:- it will have in, addition a numerical' designation which-1. aIWaYSJ'COIISiSiLS of: the figure number plus two other-digits, whereby-thelocationjof a piecezot: apparatus. can-be; at once found by turning-to the "corresponding-figure number: Where conductors are. designatediby-numera-l's in 3 addition to the usual. alphabetic designation thereof the number used will be a combination including the figure number wherein the conductor is first picked up in the tracing of a circuit and this number" will be retained even though the conductors, extend through another large number of circuits; Another convention used herein for the sake of clarityiis'anumber ing scheme for the cables. or bundles of conductors which must becarried over long distances. This is the useof a hyphenated number such as 29-118 indicating, that this cable or bundle of conductors extends between Fig. 29 and Fig. 118.

Fonobviouspurnoses, certain. cases-,; COIldHC-s' tors will bear the same alphabeticdesignation. as

otherwapparatus'r This. is not to be taken as a duplication of;the-designation but will be readily understoodt-thatisuch a conductorbears an mti mate:relation to-the other piece of-appa-ratus:

Similar logical means for designating variouselements-ofthe circuits willbe found in the drawings and are -used asan aid to'theelear under standing; of the present arrangement.

The appa-ratus' used in'constructing the-device 0f the present invention is mostly standardcom m'unica-tion apparatus; details of which 'may be found in the following references The-relays are" oftypes shown "in Patents; 1,156,671, BPC'r'aftOct: 12, 19-15; 1,633;5'76;' C. H. Franks; J une'28', 192111552489, E. D; Mead, Dec. 1'3; 1927; 1,652j490;D;'DL'Miller, Dec. 13;-1927';' 1,652,491, 1D'. 'D.'.Mill"er, Dec. 13; 1927; 2,169,551, 0.1. Baker, Aug. .15", 1939;" 2,178,656; P. W.'Sw'en-. son, Nov. .7, 19,39;.,2,323,961,.F. A. Z'upa, July 13,

. The. reader is disclosed in application Serial No.-

tions all disclosing features of the same device. The Joel application contains a full and complete description of all the circuit details, as well as a short description of several of the features thereof, while the remaining applications, including the present, of this group each contain short de- 'scriptions of several other features of the device and each relies upon the said Joel application for the full and complete description of the circuit details of the device as a whole. The complete disclosure of the device of the present invention will, therefore, be found in the present and the following applications:

Serial No. Filing Date Inventor 101, 087 June 24, 1949.. A. E. Joel, Jr.

101, 088.... June24, 1949.. Joel-Rippere.

10l,084 June24, 1949.. Flint iague-loel-Rippere. 101,989 June 24, 1949 A. E. Hague.

101,083 L. June 24, 1949, E. W. Flint.

101,086 June 24, 1949.. R. O. Rippere.

101,082 June 24, 1949 Eppel-Joel.

l01,090 June 24, 1949.. Hague-Joel.

1 Patent No. 2,546,835, granted March 27, 1951.

1 Patent No. 2,531,622, granted November 28, 1950.

Other applications covering parts of the same development having disclosures overlapping the present disclosure in certain respects but cover- 'ing independent inventions, as claimed therein, are as follows:

Serial No. Filing Date Inventor 101,081 June 24, 1949.. S. L. Eppel.

38,927 July 15, l948 J. W. Gooderham. 788,449 Nov.28, 1947. W. W. Carpenter.

, 1 Patent No. 2,522,946, granted September 19, 1950.

3 Patent No. 2,496,150, granted January 31, 1950.

Other applications having some relation to the present disclosure in that such applications show details of the complete development of which the present is but a part are as follows:

Serial No. Filing Date Inventor 724, 992 Ian. 29, 1947 Carpenter-Gooderham. 759,402.... July 7,1947... Carpenter-Collie. 793,298 Dec.22,1947. Joel-King.

The general appearance of one embodiment of the invention is given in the perspective view in Fig. 1. There are two cabinets I and I 0| in which the relays and other small apparatus are mounted. The key and lamp panel are indicated at I02 and contain the set-up switches, the various lamps and the keys used in investigating the condition of the computer at any time, particularly after an alarm has been brought in. Two main alarm lamps I03 and I04 are indicated as being mounted near the top of the relay cabinets and are in such a position that they can be seen from any part of the large room in which this piece of apparatus is mounted along with similar appearing apparatus for the assembler, the sorter, the Summarizer and the printer. Shown in this view, there are six cabinets of which the first one I05 houses the reader. A reel I06 below the reader 'holds a longlength of tape such i0! 'si'rhich feeds into the reader above and after being processed is returned to and wound on another reel. Each'of the other cabinets such as the right-hand end one I08 houses a pair of perforators. In each of these cabinets there is mounted a bin such as :I 09 containing a long length of unperforated tape which after being processed by the perforator is fed into another bin II 0. The computer may contain as many as nineteen perforators as will be explained hereinafter and each customer charge as it is computed is sorted by being selectively perforated on one or another of the various output tapes.

I I General operation Fig. 2 is what might be termed a thumb nail sketch to explain the organization of the device forming the subject-matter of the present invention. It consists ofa reader 200 for reading the ,ment and is reregistered and part of which is retained in its original form before being routed to output tapes. At any rate a selecting means. here shown as the line pattern connector 203 .is employed to glean from the registers selected bits and items of information and then through another distributing arrangement, the perforator connector 204 to route the computed charge data to the various perforators 205 whereby a plurality ,of output tapes are formed.

There are two communication channels, or trunks, one to transmit the incoming data from the reader to the registers and the other to translmit the outgoing data from the registers to the tape perforators. .The registers form the heart of the device, for it is within this arrangement that 45 the information is processed and held ready for records.

the output circuit to make its selection and its This Fig. 2 will then be regarded as a backbone or skeleton for the more elaborate schematic shown in'Figs. 4 to 13, here arranged as shown in Fig. 3.

those which succeed, signaling the achievement by connecting ground to a corresponding conductor and those whose path is blocked by unperforated tape holding their corresponding conductors open.

The twenty-eight'conductors connected to the twenty-eight reader pins pass through the contacts of the reader connector MI by means of which they may be connected as determined by the control circuits to the reading relays. In the case of the first three of these conductors representing the code for the first or A digit, an additional break is placed in the path of these conductors consisting of the make contacts of the gamma;

signals from the reader. However, the reader (CRJSBS' blllJ .a= single pathwhereas each reading relay controls a plurality :of contact sets whereby the validity of a code may be tested and-various other control circuitsmaybe closed whereby the ,iternof information, contained in. a ,code being 5 read by .the reader not only. mayibe forwarded tea register but. apartofthe vcode may be used :for control andother operations,

, .As'clearly indicated in Fig.4,thetwentywight places 'of. the codeiare allotte'dthree, for the first C or..A digit and'five for. each of the followingfiye jB,C,;D, E and F digits. TheA.digitreadingrelays 404 consist oLthe All, Al and, A2,.relays. and are used to index the linereadandtoithusclassify the information containedQin.theotherv five 525 j'digits.

'''By way of examplena zero inthe A,digit,..signaled .bythe operation ofthe ,A0, relay,,may be a splice codeor a supplementary line of ,aninitial "entryya 1 in the A digit, is,a,timing' entry, such asthe disconnect ,oxzthe an$Wer-time,,the zinthe A digit may be the first line. of. an initial entry, one ,of the tape identitycodes ,or..some.special code and, lastly a 3, signaled bythejsimultaneous ".Operation. of all three Al], ,Al ,and A2v relays,v may f;be a special. code such asatimed release at-the "disconnect time. I V

, Eachuof thetremainings fiveudigit. groups of reading. relays such asthejBdigit gronpl405have known as a two-outeofefive group, since the code .to..,express. any. .one, of ,the ten digits consists ,of .Lthe energization of two. outof. thefiveavailable .relays .in such. a .combination,. that .theesum, of "their, designationsieqnals the digitexpre'ssed. ,An exception to this general rule is that thepperagtion. 1 of.. the. 4. hand-(the =11 ,rela-ysexpresses-the .-.digit..0.- 7 v ,.'-I'-1'1e,splice\oo.de-081010 isthen expressed'by the operation of the All relay in the A digit group" a494, the-BI aand'aBlrelays in therB dig-it group nM15; the G0 and Ciprelays-in .-the"C digit group 4%, rthe.--D4-and' D1- relays in the D digit-group 1 r401; --the- EB and El rela-ys in the- E-ad-igitgroup 1 ..408--,a-nd .the F tand Fl relays in-thefi digit group r409; -Othencodesare expressed in-like-ma-nner. "The v tape idenfity -codes are those which have .thesame first {three digits 289va-nd count from .289:1'XX "to- 2899XX so that in 7131115 133158" the 289 is:Used-fOn-eertain=control-purposes; the -1 to- 9 in Ethe 1D digit, for counting-purposes and generally a only :the last- :two; the: E and F digitsfor. actual information purposes.

--;-,W-hen-. it-eomesto-theactual, information codes, such as the timing entries and the initial-entries, .qthen only :the A digit is used for indexing "purposeslandthe restare all-'usedfor true-informa- "tion: purposes.

:The;- computei: is prepared i-fomoperationLby-ad- Justine. a plurality of -set-up:switches'atorexpress information concerning a' tapelto besprocessed. Such -zswitches 1 are here represented by.:thelEand F set-rupswitches I180 and l l 0 I ,prespecti-v'elyyand by-,-means QfrSllCh switches the:following.informatiers-may. be: established:

. 'Sortof MU calls to beefiected Marker group-tens *Marker group-units "First-recorder-'tens Firstrecorderunits Last recorder-tens Last recorder---1J.nits

. Day of round-first :Day of roundlast Month--tens Monthunits Round All of this information ,with'theexceptionof the first will be found in the tape-identity codes and these codes must check by automaticcircuit operation against the setting of the: switchesbefore operation of the device may proceed.

After-"the set-up switches are adjusted and-the incoming tape has been introduced inthe reader the tape end key is operated temporarily and then the start key is operated. -It "i's'necessary to operate the tape end key first becausetheends-of all output tapes must be prepared before the computer can go into operation and; therefore,

"the circuit is so arranged that'until the tape end key has been operated ,and-t-hen restored the operation of the startkey willrbe ineffective. v.Qnce ,the. tape ,endekeywhas. been. 0perated..the operation becomes automatic: and twenty-seven or some multiple thereof of the splicecode will be perforateddn. all ,the output tapes. -'Inaaecord- 4Q ance .witl'icertain arrangementswhich will-be Other-entriesinterspersed with the three in- '70 :formationa-h CQQ ES'iEtbOVG, such-as the hour entries contain actual information in only the" last two --'o'ri-three,digits andfidenti-fication of the entryin the others vorvzat "least in the?v first four-orztliree othereof.

fully explained hereinafter, nine codes are spread over the output-tapes, andithiais repeated three times. If the tape end keygis restored before this operationvis complete, then. theoperation .irillrhalt. after .each o tp t t pehaslhad twentyseven splice codes perforated therein, otherwise the operation willi'be automatically. repeated. Thereafter, the start key will'be effective.

Inthe'lower'part of FigTll the rectangle l I02 represents the entry spread progresscircuit and consists of a sequence arrangement known as a *Walkingwcircuit, whereby the ten MU perforators are operated in'turn followed in order by -the 'perforators for the straddle tape, the line observing tape, the MU detail tape, and thesix detail tapes or any selection ofthese which may 'be determined. by thenature of theincomingitape and recorded on the-set-upswitches. These avariouszperforatorsmor rather'means to sequentially render them operative to. perforate. a given code areihere represented by the relays-such asthe .MUO relay H 03 ,at the ,left to,,- the,-,DET6..; relay I-HM at the left.

3 1 639 3 9 th s ntryespread prqsressicircuit over theperforatorsi is, hereeshown' Sche- ;matic,allyby the conductors sucheas the Ononlductor :l I05 controlled by-theML-lfl-relay I I03 and ,the iconductor I L06 controlled bythe 'DE'IE- re- ;lay l,l -04 -which may be effectively traced, oyer the path H01; through :the .day v:sort control. 1 3.90 and theperforator register .130 I; to the perfora- {T connector relays-such asthe=P -0; relay. L302 gand ;the;-P-;l8 relayl3l'l3-.;' Thus; the perforators 18 1. asg-zthe BERFzfl v des nated -3. 4,.and the -75.-:EEB,F-l8i desi nat d. .1305. may-aloe. iseuuentia ly 13 connected to the trunk for controlling the perforations to be made.

This trunk consisting of twenty-eight conductors extends from the line pattern connector I08, through Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 to the twenty-eight relays A to F1 here shown as the perforator check circuit I306.

The 081010 splice pattern code is formed in the line pattern connector I I08 employed for the end of tape preparation. In this rectangle, there is indicated the 08| relay H09 which will extend grounds to the conductors of the perforator code trunk described so that each perforator as it is sequentially connected to this trunk will, as before stated perforate a series of nine splice pattern codes, to be repeated three times.

It may now be assumed that the tape end key is restored and the start key is operated so that the device will go into operation. The splice code on the end of the incoming tape will be passed through the reader until the tape identity codes are encountered. These are nine codes 2891XX to 2899XX in order. The first of these must have the tape index 02, indicating that the incoming tape is one prepared in a second sort operation by the assembler. In the computer then the first code encountered after the splice pattern is 289102 and no other code will advance the operation of this device to further operations. It may also be noted at this point that no other accounting system device will accept this tape except the printer when set for verbatim printing.

The tape identity codes are then read by the reader, each in turn, and the information they carry is checked against the information expressed by the setting of the switches such as H00 and HM, also here generally indicated by the rectangle 500. Each of the codes 891 to 2899, inclusive, will be expressed by the A, B, C

and D digit reading relays and passed to the tape identity progress circuit 50! wherein a series of relays such as Ll relay 502 and L9 relay 503 will respond as each line is checked. As each line proves satisfactory a signal is given over the RSI lead 504 to operate the RSI reader step relay 100 to properly advance the tape in the reader to the next code. On the last line the reader step relay is not operated immediately but held until this information can be spread on the output tapes. When the full nine lines of the tape identity codes have been checked, then the IC tape identification check relay is operated, and this will start the next operation by which the tape identification is spread on the prepared ends of each output tape, the complete nine lines on one tape and corresponding lines then repeated on the next tape under control of the entry spread progress circuit H02.

The TIE, tape identification ended relay 505 operates after all the tape identification codes have been perforated in all tapes.

The specific information for each line of tape identification is derived from the setting of the set-up switches such as H00 and HM under control of the line pattern connector H08 for the end of tape, such information being transmitted over the output trunk to the perforators such as i304 and I305.

The output tape ends having been prepared and a reader step relay having been operated, the first code of the time group having an item of general information is read. This is the recorder number in the form 280XTU wherethe D digit (X) is used to indicate that the recorder is a regular or an emergency unit and the E and F digits provide the tens and units digits of any recorder number from 00 to 19.

The A digit reading relays are shown here as exercising a control over the control circuits 506 and these in turn over the paths and 600 as controlling the recorder register connector 'IOI. If no recorder number has been registered then the RCRA relay 102 will be operated to register the D, E and F digits being read by the reader in appropriate parts of the recorder register 103. It may be noted at this time that where the recorder number code is encountered again at the beginning of another section of the incoming tape, the RCCA comparing relay 104 will be aperated so that the recorder number may be compared with the number previously registered.

The next code is the hour code, 2811TU, and now the control circuits 506, over the path cause the operation of the hour register connector 602 to register in the earlier hour register 900 this hour entry (generally 03) If this is as now assumed the first hour entry, then the HlA-B relay 604 is operated to register the hour as read. It may be noted that each subsequent hour entry, 2810TU is through the I-IOA-B relay 603 whereby the value of the hour is reduced by 1 as it is transmitted to the earlier hour register 900.

The hour having been registered in the earlier hour register it is now transferred through the hour transfer check connector to the current or disconnect hour register 902. This being the first hour entry such transfer takes place immediately. Where, under other circumstances, there is an existing registration in the disconnect hour register 902, then a check is made to see that the hour registered in the earlier hour register is one less in value than such existing registration and when this is proved the said existing registration is released and that in the earlier hour register 900 is transferred to the disconnect hour register 902.

The third and final item of general information is the calendar day code, in the form 2821TU, where T and U stand for the tens and units digits of the actual calendar day. Again the control circuits 506 over the path 60! operate the day register connector 605, and the registration is made in the day register 903. This is made in the decimal code, there being four tens relays representing the 0, 1, 2 and 3 for the tens digits of the calendar day and a full complement of ten units digits. When this registration is complete the computer is ready to proceed to its main duties.

It may be noted that the central office tape having been passed through the assembler twice, once on a units digit sort and once on a tens digit sort there may be as many as one hundred sections in the 289102 tape coming to the computer. These time group entries will follow the splice code in every case and, therefore, the processing of each section of a tape is preceded by the reading of these three, recorder, hour and day entries. During the processing of a tape section, there may be regular hour entries and these will adjust not only the hour registration but the day registration, for as the hour changes from 00 to 23, at midnight, the date also changes. This usually results in the diminution of the date by 1 but may entail a complete change, such as from 1 to 31, 30, 29 or 28.

The recorder hour and day entries are not copied on any one of the output tapes but the registrations are held available to the line pat- 

